News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-12-08
AN OLD MORSE WAR-SHIP.
Built a Thousand Years Ago and Not
Unlike the Volunteer.
from scribner's for November. ]

4 lOT NONemDeT.l
No object SO thoroughly fascinated
me in visit to Norway and Sweden
during the summer of 1882 as the splen-
did example of ancient shipping discov.
cred shortly before at Gokstad, on one
| of the peninsulas of Southern Norway.
The length from stem to stern over
| all is 79 feet $3.50 metres), the keel
alone measuring &c feet go. 10 metres).
The breadth of beam is 164 feet g. 10
metres), and the depth about 4 feet
| Q.20 metres). Oak alone WAS used in
the construction, the body being un-
painted, while the stem and stern posts
were decorated. The planks were laid
on over the frame timbers in our lap
streak style, each overlapping the one
below it, and were fastened together
with iron bolts riveted and clinched upon
the 'cliuker- built, as we now
call it. The planking was lashed to the
frames by means of projections, with
wicker-like cords, or withes, made from
the roots of trees; and the seams were
calked with hair of cattle spun into a
cord of three strands, and this was not
driven into the crevices, but laid in
when the planking was put together.
From this method of construction, as
well as from the character of the relics
found and the use of the vessel as q
means of sepulture, Mr.. Nicolaysen in
fers that it was built during the later
iron age, or between A. D. 700 and 1000.
(The early iron age comprises the first
seven centuries after the Christian era).
The decorations of the trimmings on the
prov, gunwale and stern-post, the num-
114 Il.
the relics, together with the handy use
of oolors, exhibit very strong influence
from Irish decorative art For in her
palmy days before the beginning of the
eighth century Ireland outstripped ev-
cry other country in Europe in minia-
ture painting and the ornamentation of
metal and wood. This consideration
fixes the date of construction subsequent
to A. d. 700.
Its great sharpness of build and fine
sheer gave to it model which does not
suffer in comparison with that of the
Galatea, or the best of the yachts used
on the English coast for sailing in deep
waters. 1t had the advantage, however
of t1attened bottom amipships, which
must have secured to it much greater
steadiness than the English cutters;
something, in fact, between the cutter
and the flat, keelless boat of the centre
board type-suggesting at once the
model of Mr.. Burgess's latest design, |
the Volunteer. The peculiar method
of attaching the rudder to the side of
the stern afforded manifest advantages
for shipping and unshipping, but did
not admit of as prompt an effect as does
the adjustment of the modern rudder.
From the height of the portfolios cut in
the sides to receive the oars, it is certain |
that the oarsmen rowed in sitting pos
ture, as we see them on the Bayeux tap |
estry and on the Haggeby stone in Swe-
den. The merchant vessels were not |
fitted with portfolios for oars, and had |
no flooring on the beams, SO that the |
Gokstad vessel could only have been q
especially as she was fitted for
sailing also, and carried at least three
small boats, indicating a large crew.
Besides, a trader would never have been
thought of for burial. It was without |
doubt, then, individual property belong
ing to some prominent chieftain, and
must have carried from seventy to eigh
ty men, for the fragments indicate that
there were thi1ty-two shields and six
teen pairs of oars, and as two men were
necessary to handle one oar of this size,
the rowers alone must have been sixty
four in number.